Bizarre Facts About North Korea

(Source: diply)

How can you not want to know more about North Korea? They did it to themselves, really. By being so isolated, by cutting the country off from the rest of the world, the people in power were guaranteed to arouse the curiosity of the outside world. You just have to love a mystery — and there's no place in the world more mysterious than the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of North Korea).

Sadly, much of the country's secrecy hides tragedy and atrocities few of us can even imagine and terrifying weapons programs. At the same time, it's fascinating to ponder how a country goes from being, if not modern, at least somewhat industrialized — to being a backwards hermit nation.

It's a nation without parallel in the international community. What little we do know has largely come from defectors — and the look behind the tiny nation's veil of secrecy they've provided shows some profoundly weird things.

North Korea has 28 state-approved haircuts: 18 for women...

And 10 for men.

In North Korea, the year is 104, not 2015. They use a calendar called the Juche, based off the birth of Kim Il-Sung, not Jesus.

The Ryugyong Hotel dominates the skyline of North Korea's capital, Pyongyang. With 105 floors, it's the 24th largest building in the world — and its 3,000 rooms remain empty.

Blue jeans are illegal in North Korea. They're considered a symbol of American imperialism.

North Korea produces so little electricity that it's almost completely dark at night.

Following the death of Kim Jong-il, thousands of North Koreans faced six-month sentences in prison camps for not being sufficiently upset.

In 2015, North Korea adopted its own time zone, Pyongyang Time.It resets North Korea's clocks to what it was before Japanese rule.

In 2012, North Korea claimed to have found the ancient lair of a unicorn ridden by legendary King Tongmyong.

North Korea is one of only two countries in the world where you can't buy a Coke. (The other is Cuba.)

North Koreans effectively have no internet access. A privileged few can access an internal network called the Kwangmyong, which features 1,000 to 5,500 government-approved websites.